Marco Rubio defends cuts to the foreign affairs budget in the Senate

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Secretary of State Marco Rubio is defending major cuts in the foreign affairs budget as he testifies on Tuesday before the Senate committee where he used to be a member. “America is back,” he said in his statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But the committee’s ranking Democrat warns that budget cuts, and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), mean the United States is ceding ground to China. Politics Senate foreign relations to grill Rubio RUBIO TESTIFIES Listen · 3:46 3:46 Transcript Download